Marg and Leigh's travels around the world

We are two retired women from New Zealand, busy travelling the world. Our quest is to experience other cultures before they are changed beyond recognition, and see endangered animals and environments before they disappear. We hope you like our blog and enjoy our exploits. We sure have had fun getting here.

Wednesday, 8 June 2011

Southern Croatia and Montenegro

Split proved to be an enjoyable stopover with nice camping & great facilities right on the seafront. A highlight was hiring a little 50cc scooter in Split & travelling up the coast to the most delightful town of Trogir - a medieval gem and another UNESCO World Heritage Site just a short distance from Split. We wandered around the gorgeous old city & chanced upon Restaurant Vanjaka where we had a fantastic seafood lunch. Ljiljana, the owner gave fantastic service & shared her tapenade recipe with us. She recommended that we should go to the island of Korcula further south.

The weather was fantastic for our entire stop in Split & further down the coast. We travelled south & had a brief stop in Neum which is on the only bit of coast line belonging to Serbia. We continued on through the Peljesac Peninsula where they produce a great wine unique to the area. At the end of the peninsula is Orebic which was our base for the trip to the island of Korcula . We did a ferry trip out to Korcula where we walked around the lovely old city & had a great day with another gorgeous seafood lunch while sitting on the waterfront in the shade.

Dubrovnik was our next stop which was as spectacular as you will have read about. It was extremely hot, particularly on the local bus that we used to get around. We walked the city wall & enjoyed the local atmosphere before moving to Montenegro.

MontenegroWe crossed over the border & travelled around the Bay of Kotor through all the lovely little villages. Eventually we found an auto camp at a private house with room for caravans etc right on the bay in Tivat, which proved to a useful base. It was right on the waterfront with wonderful views & was very convenient for the bus, but its facilities were woeful which seemed to be standard for Montenegro. We caught a ferry to see the main sights which took us to Herceg Novi, the Blue Grotto, Kotor Township, and a beautiful Monastery on an artificial island. We then got a small local bus from Kotor back to our campsite which took us round some very windy & narrow roads through small & quaint fishing villages.

Our route then took us further south through the Montenegro Riviera of Budvar, Sveti Stefan & Petrovac. Sveti Stefan, one of the top towns according to Lonely Planet was just beautiful. It had nice houses and great beach & looked like a rich person’s place. We stayed at Ulcinjat the Tropicana beach camp (sold to us based on a photo of the beach rather than the motor camp!). The campsite ended up ok as it was very private, and right on the beach front. On our second morning there we woke up find one of Marg’s shoes was missing from our front door step. After scratching our heads & a fruitless 40 minute search a local came running up to us apologising for his dog’s misbehaviour. Marg’s shoe now has nice set of doggie teeth marks to note the occasion but at least she has two shoes again! All up, Montenegro was very interesting. The hinterland is agricultural with signs of poverty & eastern style-stand up toilets throughout, while the beachside areas are quite sophisticated & beautiful. Next stop Albania & Macedonia.